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Finance Minister P Chidambaram, known for his number crunching skills, today took on Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi for exaggerating economic growth figures during the tenure of BJP-led coalition. He wondered as to why should Modi stage a "fake encounter" with facts.
Modi is reported to have said that the economic growth rate during the tenure of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government was 8.4% a year on an average.
In a statement, Chidambaram rolled out GDP growth figures during the NDA regime as:
| Year | GDP growth |
| 1988-89 | 6.7% |
| 1999-00 | 7.6% |
| 2000-01 | 4.3% |
| 2001-02 | 5.5% |
| 2002-03 | 4.0% |
| 2003-04 | 8.1% |
In fact, none of the period, as shown by the Finance Minister, recorded 8.4% growth.
Chidambaram said the average annual growth for the six-year NDA period stood at 6% and that for the last five years at 5.9%.
In contrast, the average annual GDP growth during the first stint of the United Progressive Alliance government was at 8.4%, he said.
"For the first four years of UPA-II, the average has been 7.3%," the finance minister said, adding the two worst years since the turn of the century were 2000-01 (4.3%) and 2002-03 (4%)."
He said If there was a golden period of growth, it was the five year period under UPA-I.
"I wonder why Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail," Chidambaram said, using the analogy of charges against the Gujarat government for belying BJP's prime ministerial candidate's claims.
